Gravitational domain walls and p-brane distributions

TL;DR

This paper reviews algebraic methods for classifying and deriving domain wall solutions in maximal gauged supergravity across various dimensions, linking them to p-brane distributions in string theory and introducing new results for NS5-branes.

Contribution

It provides a unified algebraic framework for domain walls in supergravity and introduces new classifications and dualities for p-brane distributions, especially for NS5-branes.

Findings

Derived solutions in D=4, D=5, D=7 supergravity

Linked solutions to distributions of M2, D3, M5-branes

Presented new classifications for NS5-brane distributions

Abstract

We review the main algebraic aspects that characterize and determine the domain wall solutions of maximal gauged supergravity in various spacetime dimensions by considering consistent truncations that retain a number of components in the diagonal of the coset space scalar manifold of the theory. Starting from the algebraic classification of domain walls in D=4 gauged supergravity, we also derive the corresponding solutions in D=5 and D=7 dimensions. From a higher dimensional point of view, these solutions describe the gravitatonal field, in the field theory limit, of a large number of M2-, D3- and M5-branes that are distributed on hypersurfaces in the transverse space to the branes. As a new result we employ a smearing procedure as well as various dualities to list the irreducible curves and the symmetry groups of p-brane distributions for all values of p that are of interest in current applications of string theory. Some emphasis is placed on the presentation of new results in the case of NS5-branes.